One of the biggest lineups was at the Post Office set up especially for the day to enable patrons to have a letter stamped with the official Punkeydoodle’s Corner postmark and crest. Over 5,000 pieces of mail were dispatched for the one-day Post Office bearing the now famous cancellation mark.

For those who aren’t familiar with the area, Punkeydoodle’s Corner is situated outside of Tavistock, about 3 miles southwest of New Hamburg, south of Highway 7&8 at the pinpoint where Oxford, Perth and Waterloo Counties meet.

In the pioneer days of the early 1800s, the hamlet’s location on Upper Canada’s “main street”, the Huron Road that linked Goderich and Hamilton, was of great importance. Punkeydoodle’s Corner was then a thriving settlement and by the late 1800’s had a population of nearly 100 families. It boasted a frame hotel, a livery stable to quarter settler’s teams, a blacksmith shop, chopping mill, sawmill for square and round timber, an apple butter and cider mill and a general store. The settlement began to whither in the 1860s when the Grand Trunk Railway passed it by.

The name lives on and is featured on a local sign that is the subject of frequent “midnight moves”. And, of course, theories still abound on how this most unusual place name came to be. The most frequently cited claim is that the local innkeeper had a habit of singing “Yankee Doodle” which sounded more like “Punkey Doodle” to the tavern guests. Another story talks about a rowdy night at the hotel when one gentleman who had a bit too much to drink called another man a punkey doodle. However the name started, it’s here to stay.